Further Progress

"Fuck that leopard."

Remembering the quest to repel the leopard, Xen was still gritting his teeth. After accepting the quest he found himself in the same field. At first, he was in high spirits due to his win against the rats. But as soon as he faced the leopard, he was reminded of the harsh reality.

He couldn't even land a single hit on the leopard, much less repeal it. Needless to say, it didn't go very well. He was abused to the point of crying. Instead of killing him directly, that leopard toyed with him for a long time. In the end, Xen succumbed to his injuries.

"I am never touching those quests with two or higher tokens."

Thinking about all the pain and the slow death, Xen shuddered violently.

Looking at the quests in front of him again, his eyes fell on the most simple quest there.

'Help Ellio with the construction of his school.' [Reward: Palm Art]

"It is about time I get some exercises. I can't fight others without basic knowledge."

Clicking on the quest, Xen found himself standing in front of a forest. The towering trees and the grass that was twice the height of a person made his jaw drop.

"Beautiful."

Xen was mesmerized by the beauty in front of him. The rays of sunlight were slowly permeating through the leaves of giant trees, along with the morning dew that was refracting tiny rainbows. This scene along with the sound of the breeze, chirping of insects and birds made this place look like heaven.

It took a long time for Xen to remove his sight from the scenery towards the village that was in front of him.

"Wow."

Xen had seen his fair share of cities and villages, but he swore to himself this was the most unique and beautiful village that he has ever seen.

Unlike other villages, this one was built on trees instead of the ground. The Giant trees that were over three hundred meters long and around fifty meters wide were filled with wooden structures.

Slowly walking towards one of the trees, Xen saw a ladder hanging from it. Climbing the ladder, Xen finally reached the balcony of the house.

Four giant wooden logs were working as the foundation of the house. The house was entirely made up of wood. Before Xen had the time to explore the tree, he suddenly saw an old woman sitting on a chair.

Looking at the back of the woman, Xen slowly started walking towards her.

"Hi."

Xen sent some greetings, but his friendly words were ignored.

"I am new here. My name is Xen."

Again silence.

"Can you tell me the name of the village? I just arrived here."

The distance between Xen and the woman closed to the point where he could touch her if he wanted to.

'Weird. She is still breathing isn't she?'

His first thought was that the old woman was dead, but then he saw her breathing.

After gritting his teeth, Xen walked in front of her.

Looking at the old woman who was as ordinary as anyone could be, he finally calmed his heart.

"Hello?"

This time Xen shouted on top of his lungs.

The old woman was still gazing in the distance as if he didn't exist.

"Hey. Do you know someone named Ellio?"

Xen didn't bother wasting any more time with her.

As soon as he asked the question, the old lady replied in a hoarse voice.

"You can find Ellio in the middle of the village."

"What the hell. You can talk."

Looking at the old woman, Xen was annoyed beyond words. After trying to talk with the old woman again, Xen received the same reply.

"You can find Ellio in the middle of the village."

After shaking his head, Xen slowly walked towards the edge of the house. In front of him, a narrow wooden bridge was connecting two houses from one another.

Slowly Xen started walking on that narrow bridge. Once he reached the middle, Xen finally saw the village that was mostly hidden from below.

In front of him were wooden houses exquisite beyond measure. Some of them were two stories tall. All of the houses were connected to each other via wooden bridges. The vines were acting as a guard, making a barrier on both sides of the bridge.

All the annoyance that Xen felt with the old woman before was swept away the moment he saw that village.

After walking through seven more bridges, Xen finally arrived at the center of the village where a crowd was standing silently. In the crowd, one could see old, young, women, and children. Everyone was wearing clothes that were green in color. There wasn't any piece of jewelry on them. Those green clothes seemed to be made up of cotton.

Making his way through the crowd, Xen reached the front.

"Oh great. You are here."

The first thing that greeted his sight was an old man standing with the help of crutches. The man was looking at Xen with a smile.

"Hi. I am Xen. Can you tell..."

Before Xen could complete his sentence, he was interrupted by the old man in front of him.

"My name is Ellio and I want to open a school for the kids here. Brave traveler, bring me fifty wooden logs and help me complete the school. You can find the logs at the bottom of the trees."

The old man spoke like a parrot.

"Well, sure I can help you. But can you answer some of my questions first?"

Xen was looking at the old man in front of him with a hopeful gaze. There were many things he wanted to ask. Were these people real? Where is this place? What is the geographical situation around here?

In the hopeful eyes of Xen, the old man opened his mouth again.

"Brave traveler, bring me fifty wooden logs and help me comp..."

"All right. Bye."

Turning around, Xen reached out to the ladder that was hanging from the platform and started walking down.

Reaching the ground, the first thing that greeted his sight was a bundle of wooden logs.

"Gulp."

Looking at the size of the logs, Xen swallowed hard. Each piece of log was around ten meters long and 2 meters wide. Looking at the logs and then at the top of the tree, Xen almost wanted to reject the quest. But thinking about the reward from the quest, he steeled his heart.

"Wait."

Xen suddenly stopped all his thinking and looked at the screen in front of him.

[Name: Xen]

[Cultivation: Muscles Refining]

[Tokens: 1]

{Shop}{Quest!}{Inventory}

"Maybe this can work."

Clicking on the inventory, Xen was greeted by the same blank page.

"Go."

Pointing at the bundle of logs, Xen shouted.

'...'

Except for some dried leaves that fell on his head, there weren't any changes.

"Maybe I need to touch them."

Ignoring the embarrassment, Xen walked towards the log and touched it.

"Go."

'...'

"Maybe I need to put them with my own hands."

Consoling himself, Xen picked up a log and pointed it towards the screen in front of him. With a thrust, Xen pushed the log forward. But the result he was hoping to see didn't happen.

The log passed through the transparent screen and fell to the ground.

'...'

After exhaling a deep breath, Xen took off his robe and used it as a rope to tie the log on his back. After making sure the log won't drop halfway, Xen slowly started climbing the stairs.

Much to his surprise, the stairs that were looking frail supported his and the log's weight easily.

It took around five minutes for him to transport that log from the bottom to the top. After placing the log on the platform, Xen looked at the bottom of the tree again.

"This is the worst fucking quest."

After cursing the guy for good two minutes, Xen started his work again.

.

.

.

"Brave traveler, thank you for your help. I do not have any money to repay you, but I have this 'Palm Art' that I used to practice in my younger days. I hope this will help you in your journey."

"Huff..... Huff..... Fuck.. you..."

Xen who was lying on the ground while panting heavily uttered these words with great difficulty. Right now he didn't even have the strength to move a muscle, much less lift his hand to accept the book.

'The task has been completed.'

The long-awaited text entered his sight again, and before long, Xen found himself back inside his room.

Lying on the bed, incredible mental exhaustion overtook him. At this moment, Xen just wanted to close his eyes and sleep.

Suppressing his impulse to sleep, Xen looked at the screen in front of him.

[Name: Xen]

[Cultivation: Muscles Refining]

[Tokens: 0]

{Shop}{Quest!}{Inventory!}

Clicking on the inventory, the page which always remained empty was filled with a single item.

Clicking on the book-like item, Xen noticed a small pop-up.

[Item: Palm Art]

'Lifelong work of one of the great warriors of Sylph Dynasty. Use it to learn this art.'

{Use: Yes/No}

Xen looked at the description for a long time before clicking 'Yes'. As soon as his hand touched 'Yes' Xen who was already trying to suppress his sleep, fell on the bed unconscious.

While he was in a state of deep slumber, the muscles of his hands were squirming crazily. From the outside, it looked like countless worms squirming through his hands.

Unknown to Xen, his hands were slowly changing in a completely different direction.